The Traitor's Tale

Ambrose Knight—a highly decorated CIA case officer, top spy recruiter, and member of The Guild—is suspected of espionage and treated as a pariah by many Agency colleagues and friends. After several months of purgatory, he's exonerated when another case officer's treachery is revealed. Embittered by the accusations and Agency racial discrimination due to his African American ethnicity, Knight volunteers to the Russian intelligence service and begins living a double life. In his dogged pursuit of a deadly mole inside of the CIA who is systematically slaughtering CIA's Russian assets, he'll risk everything for the truth.

Ambrose Knight—a highly decorated CIA case officer, top spy recruiter, and member of The Guild—is suspected of espionage and treated as a pariah by many Agency colleagues and friends. After several months of purgatory, he's exonerated when another case officer's treachery is revealed. Embittered by the accusations and Agency racial discrimination due to his African American ethnicity, Knight volunteers to the Russian intelligence service and begins living a double life. "The Red Queen", a senior female FBI agent who heads the CIA's Counterespionage Group (the mole hunters), claims that Knight is in fact still a spy and has been all along, his exoneration notwithstanding. She's relentless in her sociopathic pursuit, clashes bitterly with Knight's few allies, and has her own dark secrets to conceal. Joining the hunt is Brian Bannock (from "Living Lies"), now head of CIA Counterintelligence, who has suspected for several years that CIA has harbored serious Russian penetrations. Staring at him across the human chessboard is his archenemy, SVR Major General Dmitri Grishin (ret.), who is desperate to protect vital Kremlin interests and a highly placed mole in the U.S. government. Bannock must use all his guile to flush out the spy who corrodes from within.

James Lawler serves as a national security consultant and a noted speaker on the Insider Threat in government and industry. Prior to this, Mr. Lawler served for 25 years as a CIA operations officer in various international posts and as Chief of the Counterproliferation Division's Special Activities Unit. He had five overseas assignments from 1982 to 1994 and was a specialist in the recruitment of foreign spies. As Chief of the A.Q. Khan Nuclear Takedown Team, which resulted in the disruption of the most dangerous nuclear weapons network in history, Mr. Lawler was the recipient of one of the CIA's Trailblazer Awards in 2007, marking the 60th anniversary of CIA. Mr. Lawler also received the Director's Award from Director of CIA George Tenet, the U.S. Intelligence Community's HUMINT Collector of the Year Award, and the Donovan Award from the CIA's Deputy Director of Operations. Prior to his career in intelligence, Mr. Lawler practiced law and was the president of a steel components company in Texas. He is a graduate of Rice University and the University of Texas School of Law. He is married to Ellen and has three children and seven grandsons. "The Traitor's Tale" is Mr. Lawler's third espionage novel.